Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
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From a sermon by Preacher Clark, late 1969
Salvation is glorification of the body. When you receive your new, glorified body from Jesus, you will be a saved person. It is unwise to claim to have salvation already because it is possible for a child of God to “fall from grace”, to use Paul’s words, and as Jesus said it, “be given their portion with the sinners and hypocrites”. Some think that once a person is born again, he is eternally secure from the wrath of God, but that is true only if that born again person walks after the Spirit and not after the flesh. Paul said it this way to the saints in Rome: “For if you live after the flesh, you shall die, but if you through the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body, you shall live” (Rom. 8:13).
The idea that if a person is born again, then he is assured of salvation in the end regardless of the life he lives is often described as the doctrine of “once saved, always saved”. Preacher Clark confiscated that phrase for Jesus and used it to teach the truth. Here is an excerpt from his sermon that Sunday afternoon in 1969:
“I believe in ‘once saved, always saved’. I also believe in ‘once lost, always lost’. I’ll tell you when you’re lost. When you breathe your last breath, and you haven’t repented of your sins, you’re lost. And I’ll tell you when you are saved. When you take your last breath, and God looks in your heart and sees that you’ve kept the faith until the end, and you’ve walked upright. That’s it. [Jesus said], ‘He that endures to the end shall be saved.’ Not ‘he that begins’, but ‘he that endures’. ”